4 big cities, Trains, Planes, Automobiles, a Drag Queen and a Police Car

Left my hotel in Utrecht at around 7am this morning for the start of what turned into a very tiring and long day. I had booked an appointment some weeks ago before I knew I was going to Holland to renew my passport before I go to India in a weeks time. The appointment was booked for 3.15pm in London. So I had to get from Utrecht to London via Birmingham and Swindon by roughly 2.30pm to be sure of getting there in time.

First part of the journey was from Utrecht to Amsterdam via train. The Dutch train system seems to be fantastic always on time, clean and efficient. I bought my ticket and was told a train would arrive on platform 10b in 3 minutes and sure enough it did. It's also much cheaper than in England.

Next at the airport I was nice and early so checked in and got a good window seat, as I wanted to take some pictures of Birmingham from the plane. At Schipol airport the fog was a real pea souper. Once on the plane we were delayed nearly an hour for take off. My chances of reaching London by 2.30pm gradually diminishing. The flight went well, but the clouds were too low to get any good photos unfortunately.

On arrival in Brum, is was pissing with rain - really heavy rain! Just as I always think of Birmingham for some reason. I've had some bad experiences in Birmingham and the place is always tainted in my mind. I set off for the car park (no coat) and was soaked by the time I got them. Eventually found my car after 30 mins - couldnt remember which zone i had parked in a few days previously in the dark as I didn't check when I left the car park. Headed for the roads, which were very slow moving due to the rain. Hit several grimbisters on the motorway, and headed for Oxford down the M42 and M40.

By the time I was on the A420 heading for Swindon time really was pressing on. It was nearly 12.30 when I decided to phone home and ask for the passport papers to be delivered to me en-route to the train station where I was going to stop off and get my passport photos. This would save me time and give me a chance to get to London in time. All worked well. I was feeling lucky. Next I made a stupid mistake. I asked Liz if she could run me into the station as I knew it would be tricky to park. When she said, "do i have to?" I should have insisted rather than letting it go and driving myself. An hour later and I still hadn't found a parking space. It was now 2pm. The journey to London is an hour, and I had to get across London in 15 mins to get there in time... To say I was cross with myself for not insisting on a lift was an understatement.

Anyway, the train arrived on time for once and got to London almost bang on 3pm. I ran to the underground, caught the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and changed to Victoria line getting of at Victoria Station. It was 3.25pm. As I reached the passport office I could see there was no one waiting and the security guys on the door. I thought I'd missed my chance. Luckily they let me in and I was there. What a rush.

Passport processing takes 4 hours! I didnt know that it would take that long. So I had to kill some time while they renewed it. So I went to see my sister Lucy at the bar where she runs her business. We had a good old natter, a few beers, met one of her friends who is a "Drag Queen" which was interesting! She fed me and I then headed back to the passport office. Picked up my passport and was a happy chappy. The lady informed me that I really should come back after my India trip to get another one as this one was less than perfect as the picture and some of the pages had yellowed in the process... Hmmm. OK.

So I headed for home dreading another trip to London.

Caught the train back to Swindon, somewhat later than I had been expecting to and arrived eventually around 10.30 in Swindon station. Having had a nightmare parking earlier in the day I had a long walk to the Bus Station car park to get my car. When I got there I was shocked to discover the car park all locked up. Barriers down and my car clearly visible yet inaccessible. Arghhh... By now my phone battery was flat, and there was no one other than a few drunks and n'ere do wells hanging about. Wondering where I'd find an unvandalised public phone I walked into the shopping precinct and found a Police Car parked up. Inside was a very friendly woman police officer. I explained what had happened and she told me to jump in and she'd drive me round the block to the "cars only" entrance to the car park up the dangerous spiral which apparently the local yobos like to screech up at night in their souped up cars.

En-route a call came in reporting some youths hanging about in the Shipping Precinct so we went via there, and the lads had run off by the time we arrived. She then took me to the car park and I was so pleased to get safely back to the car. I thanked her and headed home.

What a long old day that was.